Friday, December 30, 2011

Sigh....Target

All things considered, we had a pretty good Christmas. Double ear infections, undiagnosed strep throat, and the joy of spreading our sicknesses with others were just a few of the things we all had to be thankful for this year. But in the end, the fat man came, he left and we're still cleaning out of his gift giving extravaganza. I'd go so far as to say he laid a finger to the side of his nose and snotted ribbon and extra tape across our basement. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow shines bright on the layer of gift boxes, torn gift bags and an assload of bows that my daughter thinks she needs in her hair.

River got her Cherry Jam doll (Yay Penny!) and her Barbie Jeep and Owen got an assload of trains and a kickass drum set and microphone that has me already plotting my brother's demise.

Now she can join her brother:

So we survived Christmas and in the end only had a few things we needed to exchange. All were too big and since I was just switching sizes, you'd think that would be no big deal, right? Eh, hemm.....wrong.

So a few days after Christmas while we were in Virginia visiting my husband's parents, I needed diapers for River so I took the things I needed to switch out, figuring I'd take care of it then. We headed to Target. First stop, "customer service."

Here's the conversation:

"I just need to exchange these for different sizes."

"Do you have a receipt?"

"No, they're Christmas gifts."

"So you don't have a receipt?"

Really? "Of course not, they're Christmas gifts."

"You can't exchange without a receipt."

"I can't exchange a size without a receipt?"

"No. I can put it on a gift card and you can re buy them." This is where I started trying to find my happy place.

"What is the point of that?"

"That's just our policy."

That line always gets me. It says you have no other argument except to follow orders. It means you don't believe in the crap you're spewing because I know it is stupid and so do you.

"Ok, that's stupid but I'll do that."

Then she starts ringing it up and I realize she's giving me half the price my Mother in Law paid for these items. I don't care that it's not my money but I'm not throwing it away. I'd rather my kids just grow into them than bend over at Target customer service and taking it up the ass in her name.

"Just forget it. That's ridiculous. I'll ask her for the receipt and come back. There is no reason for that when it has a giganto Target right on it! I mean you know it came from here."

It would be one thing if everything was on sale and you're giving me the price it is now, but that isn't what happened. The Harajuki mini tutu alone was $17 and she tried to give me $11. I went back to check as I'd never seen those things on sale and it wasn't. She was trying to give me less than I could turn around and buy it for.

Here's what I don't understand. How did Walmart get such a bad wrap and Target get out unscathed? Trust me, I hate Walmart but even they don't do this. I can just exchange sizes there with no problem. Target acts like their policy makes sense. I could see if I wanted money back, but I didn't. I would have gleefully takes then exact same items in smaller sizes. How does it hurt them to let me do that?

The bottom line is that Target's customer service sucks. The girl that "helped" me wasn't even nice and her manager was standing right there looking at me like I was crazy for questioning such a stupid policy. Shit rolls downhill I guess but it makes me want to buy my shit somewhere else. I mean there are a million places and Target is great until you need to return or exchange something and then they treat you like shit they want to wipe off their shoe.

It's shameful but in the end I was able to get the receipt from my MiL and return the items so I could buy new ones, at the price she paid for them. The fact that I was able to do that makes me appreciative of my MiL for saving the receipt, not at Target for allowing me to stand in line again behind other furious Christmas returnees.

I just find it funny that we give Walmart so much shit and let Target off the hook while they treat their customers like crap. I mean I get the Walmart labor issues but both Target and Walmart use factories with poor human rights records and with their low prices, both stores are putting smaller, more specialized and often locally owned retailers out of business. No one ever mentions that. Also, everyone in Target seems so miserable and they're just down right nasty, just like Walmart but I think part of the dress code at Target is a stick up your ass.

I remember once being at Target and some bitch yelled at me for trying to take an empty cart in a fitting room when it held my sleeping baby in an infant seat. That didn't end well but it's just another thing about Target that annoys the shit out of me. I think people are so busy hating Walmart that they let let the nice red shirts blind them to the shitty customer service that Target has going on. It's like they think it's the only option we have for dog food, cheap shoes and over priced toys.

In the end, I know that Walmart is worse but Target is getting there. The stores are over all cleaner and the people checking me out don't generally look like they rode the hobby horse to Hickeyville last night but Target could use an overhaul. That's all I'm saying.

12 comments:

I had a similar after Christmas nightmare return to Target. Without going into it, let's just say it involved a used wireless printer they sold us that didn't work and was covered with someone's nasty ass dog hair. I do agree, Walmart still sucks more ass than Target but they are going straight to hell right behind them. On another note...I do love the Harajuku Mini line which Isabella wears just about every day.

I had a house of horrors return experience yesterday in a store up In Canada called Canadian Tire. My mother in law gave me a gift that I didn't want and gave me the receipt (not a gift receipt). The gift (a cake pop maker) was not used, still in original packaging and I had the original receipt. First they told me I could not return it at all because I did not have the original form of payment with me (my MIL's credit card). When the manager came they told me they could put a credit on a gift card, but only for the lowest price it sold for, not the $40 plus dollars my MIL paid for it. I lost my shit and I rarely lose my shit and as I walked out the store, I told everyone in the return line to never buy gifts from there. Not my finest moment.

Creating my own little gang of bandits since 2007!

About Me

Mother of two young beautiful children who have their photos taken daily. Not sure I could get out of bed without my children or my Nikon.
I quit my job when my now five year old son was born. I'm now a stay at home mom, so I work full time.
You may contact me here: Wizofoz397@aol.com